Presidential elections in Transnistria start four days before date officially set

Although the so-called presidential elections in Transnistria were officially scheduled for December 10, they started on Wednesday December 6 for the inhabitants that can not vote on Sunday. The International Community will invalidate these elections. According to the press in Tiraspol, head of the election committee in Tiraspol, Piotr Denisenko, announced that all the region’s inhabitants, who for different reasons will not be able to attend the elections on Sunday, can go to the polls as of December 6. 263 polling stations were opened in the region, including 14 for the persons that are natives of Transnistria, but do not live in the zone. Moldovan citizens holding identity cards issued in Transnistria may vote at the polling stations in Dubasari raion. The present unrecognized leader of Tiraspol Igor Smirnov, Nadejda Bondarenko, editor of “Pravda Pridnestrovia” newspaper, Piotr Tomaili, MP in the so-called supreme soviet in Tiraspol, and Andrei Safonov, editor of the opposition newspaper “Novaia gazeta”, run for the president of the secessionist region. The International Community announced it will deem the results of the so-called presidential elections invalid, as all the four polls held on the left bank of the Nistru after 1991, when the Transnistrian region had proclaimed its independence.